We’re drowning in noise, in data, and in opinion. Our industry - one built on the value of ‘insight’ - is starting to lose its power. As a Cultural Strategist, the sparks we used to look for are becoming harder to spot. Algorithms are prioritising aesthetics over meaning and flattening culture into sameness. We see identical visual cues, tones, and concepts (like the ubiquitous “joy”) appearing everywhere, as brand distinctiveness is reduced to a monochromatic, bland-washed average.
But this flattening isn’t just happening in culture; it’s happening to us. The label ‘Cultural Insight’ is often slopped onto trends, fleeting cultural artifacts, and generic ideas without deep thinking or critique. The source material we have to work from is becoming harder to decipher, as emotionally hollow content - the "AI slop" of generated memes and "Shrimp Jesus" images - feels increasingly detached from tangible, human reality.
As cultural researchers, our strength returns when we look to the edges. Whilst mainstream culture feels stagnant, momentum is building in the overlooked spaces - first quietly, and then with a deafening blow to those who didn't notice the signs.
Look at the rise of non- and low-alcohol beer in the UK. Once a quiet outlier with the first sober bars appearing a decade ago, it is now an exploding category, growing 20% in 2024 alone. In the US, ignored for years in the margins, the Latino economy is growing so fast that if it were an independent country, it would have the 5th largest GDP in the world. These spaces were once uncharted growth terrains unnoticed by the centre. To pay attention to these cultural margins is to future-proof our clients against stagnation.
For researchers, it’s harder than ever to operate skillfully in this world - to distinguish a fad from a fundamental shift – to spot the next low/no alcohol opportunity. It’s vital that we reclaim our ability to understand what is moving, decide what matters, and help our clients respond in a way that feels human and coherent. We have to hold on to our interest in the niches and the oddities that will spark the next frontiers of outside-in growth.
Outside of our research world, we can see brands mirroring this yearning for "Human Friction". After decades of optimisation, productivity-porn, and a search for smoothness, we are seeing a renewed celebration of texture and frustration. Audiences are bored. They are craving vulnerability and "confessional realism" - from Lily Allen’s West End Girls to long-form Substacks and "one-shot" filming. In an almost Sisyphean twist, even the tech brands driving our search for optimisation are pivoting to celebrate this; just look at ChatGPT’s "Dish" campaign, which frames AI not as a shiny oracle, but as a companion for the friction-filled moments of daily life.
As researchers, we must uphold our standards of Cultural Research Excellence - using semiotics and ethnography to provide the ‘why’. AI has a role to play; at Quantum it provides scale, speed, and pattern recognition. But LLMs are trained on the majority - on that which rises to the top. As researchers, we have to search out that which bristles, which sits at the edges, and which sparks the conversations. It’s there that we can find the untapped energy to power the next wave of growth.
